Card Buildings

Review

Reviewed by Bruce Weeks

A large selection of coloured paper structures in kit form is currently being offered by Modelers Mart, 760 N. Indian Rocks Rd., Bellair Bluffs, FL. at prices that range from $30 ea. for a small house up to $1.00 ea for the larger models which incorporate entire castles, or sections of towns. The printing and detailing of the card stock is done in an excellent manner, there is no wash-out and the lines are well defined.

Assembly is simple as long as a few simple rules are kept in mind; first, always examine ALL of the pieces and the diagram to ensure that you know where each piece fits into the overall scheme. Second, do up complete units at a time, don't try to do a part of each house, or part of each tower, but instead concentrate on finishing off each subsection before going on. Third, scribe all the lines for each piece BEFORE you start pasting together. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to fold one last section that was overlooked after the model is half finished and the paste is all over one's fingers!!!!

All the directions are unfortunately only in German, but the diagrams are usually very good and all the fold lines are well marked on each piece (as long as you've reviewed them all before starting) so that assembly isn't too bad a problem. The makers strongly recommend using UHU which is a German brand of liquid paste not frequently found in the U.S. I recommend using the liquid glue that is sold in glass bottles with a brush built into the cap. This is sold under several trade names in the U.S. and its chief feature is that it dries very quickly, but being slightly rubbery in composition it bonds the paper very well without getting it wet and liable to tear easily as the more commonly used white glues have a habit of doing.

The only major drawback to this series is that the scale of the buildings is not constant. Each model, it sometimes seems, is set to a different ground scale. The exhibition model that we did was set at 1:120, while others were done at 1:100, 1:186 etc ... Beware when ordering from a catalogue that doesn't state the scale of each model since without this information you might not have any use for the model that you have just painstakingly put together.

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